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Boat Building Forum

So does any of these companies benefit financially from these patents?

Patents are very expensive to get. Last I knew it was over $6,000. I guess the idea is, if your innovation is so great that everyone wants it, you can have a monopoly on a market for a while. Defending the patent requires you be quite aggressive, hiring lawyers and being prepared to take it to court. A full legal defense can cost over $30,000. If you win, the infringer pays your costs plus.

A patent can be used as a bludgeon to try to intimidate others away from competing, but it is expensive and unless you have a airtight case, it may not be very effective. A simple change can usually eliminate the infringement, but the competition doesn't necessarily go away.

The biggest obstacle to success there is in the wooden kayak business is not competition from other wooden kayak businesses, the obstacle is obscurity.

Essentially nobody in the greater world knows that wooden kayaks are a thing. The best thing to happen in this industry is to have another wooden kayak built. When Orca Boats builds a kayak, it is one more center of attention on the water or on the roof of a car that will inform maybe 100 or 1,000 new people that a wooden kayak is a thing, and maybe a few of those new people will want to buy or build one for themselves. And if that new person looks around and sees there is also a Pygmy option or Warren Williamson option, or Laughing Loon option, or a Guillemot option, I am may get business from your boat. Success for one is future success for others.

So, I personally I think this kind of patent can only hurt financially. It costs money up front, they cost money to protect, provide very limited protection and success at holding back the "competition" can only serve to get fewer kayaks built which hurts all of us in the long run.